376 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF [Sess. lvi. 



meut will now prevent nourishment getting to the nuclei of 

 the synergidae, with the result that the nuclei gradually 

 degenerate and the synergida? die. 



If it is the want of nourishment that causes synergidae to 

 degenerate, why then do the antipodes, being freely supplied 

 with nourishment, not undergo conjugation as the two prim- 

 ordial cells do ? Because the very fact of each antipode being 

 supplied abundantly with nourishment, will awaken in it the 

 tendency to develop individually, a tendency associated with 

 the loss of all desire to unite for individual benefit with 

 another cell of its own kind. This individualisation of the 

 antipodes seems to become so marked that the originally 

 sexual cells may assume vegetative functions, and, partheno- 

 genetically, give rise to the primordial endosperm in plants 

 like Zca Mais, Coix lacryma, Panicum Crus-galli, Salvia 

 pratensis, and some scrophularineous plants, for "Westermeyer, 

 who is the authority on antipodes, does not seem to have 

 made out any conjugation of the antipodes, analogous to the 

 appearances shown in fig. 49 a, 49 h. 



In my previous paper it was shown that the fusion of the 

 two nuclei was in reality only the last step in the conjuga- 

 tion of two cells, and I proposed to call the newly formed 

 cell, the endosperm-cell, as it gives rise to the endosperm, and 

 to call its nucleus the endosperm-nucleus. I imagined I 

 had been the first to recognise this fact, but since then I 

 have learned from Hartog's paper (vide later) that Le 

 Monnier of Nancy was really the first person to express this 

 view clearly.* IJodel (I.e.) has proposed to call the secondary 

 nucleus the " primary " endosperm-nucleus, and I have 

 adopted tliis full name for obvious reasons. 



As formerly I held the view that the embryo-sac was the 

 equivalent of two sporocytes I naturally came to the conclu- 

 sion that the two conjugating cells were the equivalents of 

 two spores, but as I have clianged my views since then, and 

 now regard tlie eml)ryo-sac as one sporocyte, and the eight 

 cells within it as corresponding to the eight male reproductive 

 cells which develop from one pollen-mother-cell, I must 

 modify my previous explanation, and therefore state that I 

 believe the endosperm-cell to arise by the union of two 

 sexual cells which are derived from different spores. This 

 * In Morot's Journ. <]. Bot., vol. i. p. 140 (Jui)e 1887). 



